India’s lead swells past 300 after twin tons

Rishabh Pant’s second century of the game and KL Rahul’s ninth Test ton put India firmly on top in the Headingley Test. Their spectacular partnership kept England at bay for the major part of Day 4 as India’s lead swelled to 304 with four sessions left in the Test match.

If the opening session was all about being watchful, especially after Shubman Gill’s early dismissal, the second session saw runs flow freely again. Josh Tongue came into the firing line early in the session against Pant whereas Rahul moved into the 80s with a sweep shot against Shoaib Bashir. After going past fifty, Pant then took charge against Bashir, smashing him for two sixes in an over, clearly signalling his intentions.

Batting on 45 off 81 at one point, Pant managed to add 27 off the next 11 balls he faced, flicking the switch that put England on the backfoot. At the other end, the calm and composed Rahul continued to milk the bowling attack to bring up a wonderful hundred. Pant, who then moved into the nineties in no time, uncharacteristically remained there for a prolonged period. In no rush to get to the landmark, the left-hander took 22 balls to go from 95 to 100, thus becoming only the second keeper in history to register two hundreds in a single Test match.

Immediately after getting to his century though, Pant gave Root a pounding with three fours and a six in a single over. The entertainment finally came to an end when another attempt to clear the boundary didn’t pay off with Pant finding the fielder at long on. Having been dismissed for a duck in his comeback innings, Karun Nair finally brought up his first runs of the Test with a trademark reverse sweep just before the Tea interval that took India’s lead past 300. With the surface still not having any demons on it, England will hope they can stay alive in the contest if they can pull things back in the final session.

Brief scores: India 471 & 298/4 (KL Rahul 120*, Rishabh Pant 118; Brydon Carse 2/62) lead England 465 by 304 runs